Improvement in houses for preserving fruit



E. F. OLDS.

House for Preserving Fruit.

Patented July 18, 1865.

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/ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

E. F. OLDS, OF NEW HUDSON, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVEMENT IN HOUSES FOR PRESERVING FRUIT, 80C.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent- No. 48,833, dated July 18,1865.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that LE. F. OLDS, of New Hudson, in the county of Oaklandand State of- Like letters of reference refer to like parts in thedifferent views.

My improvement relates to the mode of preserving fruit, vegetables,850., as hereinafter described.

A represents the general outline of the frame of the house for thereception of the safe, de signed to be constructed with double walls, asseen at a, having one or more rooms,f, for holding the requisite amountof ice to keep the safe in operation one season or longer. The house isalso provided with air-chambers and chambersf for the deposit of poorconductors, as may be required.

B is the safe, placed inside, which can be made any size or have anynumber of apartments,and can be constructed in various ways. The wallson the sides and ends may be double, having a space between, as seen ata in Fig. 5, which is a section of a portion of the safe; or the wallscan be made single. In the sides and ends of the safe there can also bechambers, as seen at c in Fig. 5, 0 being the door of the chamber, thatopens on the inside of the safe,and is made double, as represented. b,Fig. 3, is a door into another chamber. These doors are hung on hingesand made to fit very close, so as to exclude the external air from thechambers, and through the doors the chambers are supplied with ice.

9 represents a slide-door fitting on a chamber, g, that projects outfrom the side or is attached to the wall or side of the safe.

When there are chambers like 0 formed in the wall, the wall is made deepenough, so that the chambers will be sufficiently wide to hold therequisite amount of ice, whether the outer and inner casings of the Wallare made double or single. When made of stone or brick they should bedouble, with an intervening space between them. The cham bers areusually from one to two feet in depth, extending from near the bottomalmost to the top of the safe, and they are made so tightthat no leakagecan take place into the spaces on either side, to be occupiedbythepoorcondnctorsof heat. There are one or more doors on-each chamber,opening on the outside or inside, or both. when the chamber is built onthe inside the door has to open on that side alone. The chambers can bemade the whole length of the sides of the safe, or they can be made twoor three feet wide and arranged at different distances from each other,according to the temperature desired. Thereis a small opening in thebottom of each chamber for conveying away the water through a pipe asthe ice melts. The chambers and doors are lined with one or morethicknesses of woolen cloth, or a similar poor conductor of heat, insummer, to protect the ice, 7 I

from the external heat and to increase the indirect action of the ice onthe temperature of the safe. When the safe is large there can be one ormore chambers,as U and D, at or near the center, extending from thefloor to the top of the safe, or through it, which communicate with areservoir at the lower end, from which the water is conducted by adouble siphon.

These chambers can be lined similar to the side chambers, for the samepurpose, and are provided with doors on one or more sides, as seen at hh, by means of which the chambers can be packed with ice; or the ice canbe put in at the top. By opening or closing the doors the ice can bemade to act directly or indirectly on the temperature of the safe.

If anything is necessary to retain the icein the side and centralchambers when the doors are open, narrow strips can be put across asfast as the ice is packed in, or sections of open lattice-work, asindicated by the perforated pieces shown at p p, can be put on, whichshould be Very open. When the ice can be procured in proper-shapedblocks, nothing is required to keep it inthechambers.

,By opening or removing the doors of the side and central chambers theinfluence of the ice upon the temperature of the room is direct; butwhen the doors are closed the action of the ice on the temperature isindirect, or it does not so soon affect it. The lining on the inside ofthe chambers increases the indirect action of the ice and prevents itfrom melting,

as it otherwise would. The thickness of the lining can be increased ordiminished, according to the action desired to be produced upontheatmosphere of the safe.

This safe can be made to answer the purpose of a refrigerator, removingthe objections made to refrigerators in ordinary use, one of which is itrequires so much ice to keep them in operation, and another is itisfound to be so difficult to reduce the temperature and keep it there anylength of time. With this safe, the chambers being all lined with anon-conductor, as described, the ice is preserved and made tolast twiceas long as if it were not thus surrounded. And by means.0f the doorsopening into the chambers the ice can be made to act directly orindirectly upon the temperature of the safe, regulating it in every wayand manner desirable.

Whenever it is desired to reduce the temperature of the safe quickly theaction of the ice in the chambers is made as direct as possible byopening all the doors or removing them. If this is not sufficient toreduce the temperature to the desired point rapidly enough, salt and icecan be put in different places through the room, and when the desiredtemperature is obtained the salt and ice can be removed and all thedoors into the chamber closed. If

there should be too much moisture in any portion of the atmosphere ofthe room, one or more of the chamber-doors at this point can be opened,so that the moisture will be attracted to the ice from the surroundingair, or

the lining of the chamber-doors can be removed and then close the doors,a cold surface being thus presented on which the moisture, by a law ofnature, will collect. By this latter method the ice will be madetolastlonger, but the moisture will not be absorbed so rapidly. If thereis still any moisture left that would proveinjurious, driers-such aschloride of calciumare placed in troughs 1', arranged one above anotheron aportable frame; butit is very seldom they are required. This framewith a trough is represented by Fig. 4.

Another very important means for reducing the temperature of theinterior of the safe and for holding it there is having the top of thesafe covered with several feet of ice by means of chambers 01 d d, thatcan be lined with a non-conductor and filled With ice, similar to theside chambers. The bottom of these chambers must be inclined downward,either in the middle or at the sides, so that the water as the ice meltscan be carried off through holes e (seen in Fig. 2) and conveyed away bymeans of pipes extending down through the safe. This ice will exert agreat influence on the temperature of the room below. As the hottest airrises to the top it will be rapidly cooled,

th us reducing and regulating the temperature.

It is not convenient to have ice-chambers in the top of the safe, unlessit is builtlarge and there is abundance of room.

The chambers of this safe, constructed and arranged as described, and bythe means for influencing their direct and indirect action, have manyadvantages, when it is taken into consideration the variety andcharacter of substances to be preserved, some keeping best at differentdegrees of temperature, and thereis. so much more moisture eliminatedfrom some than others to suit, all of which can be easily regulated bythe chambers in the ways before stated. Some substances keep best in aroom so close that the oxygen of the air is excluded. A separate roomcan be made in the safe, when this is required, in which the moistureand temperature will be regulated as in the other rooms.

There is no necessity for using ice in the chambers during cold weather,as it is only necessary to protect the contents of the safe against thefrost. For this purpose the chambers on or in the sides should be filledwith a poor conductor and lined closely and the top of the safe coveredwith the same material, so that no frost or cold can enter.

It is desirable,if the safe is large, to have a house like A built forits reception, though it is not absolutely necessary, as it can beoperated successfully without. It is well to have the walls of the sidesof the house and safe double for summer as'well as winter use, to betterprotect the interior of the safe against external heat and frost.

The central chambers, U and D, can be removed in winter, as they are notneeded to regulate the temperature.

The safe can be divided into several apartments for the purpose ofadapting the temperature and moisture of each room to the requirementsof the different substances to be preserved.

WVhat I claim as my improvement, and -desire to secure by LettersPatent, is-- 1. The safe B, arranged and constructed in the manner setforth, in combination with the ice-house A, as specified.

2. The sideice-chambers, cg, and doors 0 b g, separate and incombination with gauze or perforated slides 19, as andfor the purposeset forth.

3. One or more central chambers, O D, with or without the gauze orperforated slides, in connection with the doors h h, substantially asand for the purpose set forth.

' i E. F. OLDS.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM DUNCAN, PHEBE ALLEN.

